Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, part of the Wholesale division at Lloyds Banking Group, delivers corporate banking and risk management services to financial institutions and corporate customers.

Bruce Kellaway, Head of Swaps Trading at Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets said, "Clearing interest rate swaps is a key step for Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets. The credit and operational efficiencies that result from joining an IRS clearing service such as SwapClear, allow us to further build competitive solutions for our clients."

Michael Davie, CEO of SwapClear at LCH.Clearnet commented, "We are pleased to welcome Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets to SwapClear. The growing interest in SwapClear highlights the appeal of our excellent clearing model and the importance of reducing systemic risk in the marketplace. Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets joins us at an opportune time as regulators look to strengthen financial markets and we welcome the liquidity and expertise that they bring."

Established more than 11 years ago, SwapClear is the only truly global clearing service for IRS. Since launch in 1999, it has cleared over 1.5 million OTC IRS trades. SwapClear currently has 50 clearing members and its portfolio contains 880,000 trades with a notional value in excess of $266 trillion, down from $305 trillion as a result of terminating $39 trillion cleared IRS transactions through on-going compression. It is the only OTC clearing service to have successfully handled a significant OTC default, when it resolved Lehman Brothers' $9 trillion IRS default in 2008. In that instance, SwapClear's default management process ensured that more than 66,000 trades in 5 currencies were hedged and auctioned to other clearing members. SwapClear's process resulted in no loss to any market participants.

In June 2010, following extensive industry consultation, LCH.Clearnet became the first derivatives clearinghouse in the world to use overnight index swap (OIS) rate curves to discount IRS. This important step not only ensured the highest standards of risk management within a CCP; it has also increased certainty and transparency in the interest rate swap market more generally. This type of industry thought leadership was recognized by Risk Magazine in naming LCH.Clearnet 2011 Clearing House of the Year in its Risk Awards.